Google Analytics to provide more security notifications

It was a year ago that Google Analytics launched Safe Browsing Alerts for warning users about their websites that Google identified as compromised and being used as a source of distribution of malware. Since its launch, Google Analytics have sent alerts to over 24,000 people whose websites have been a victim of site compromise.

Google Analytics today announced expansion of its Safe Browsing alerts service. It will now include notifications about websites that have been hacked in violation against Webmaster Guidelines. In case your website has been compromised or stands the risk of compromise, the affected domain will be flagged in the Google Analytics UI. It will further redirect you to help to resolve this.

In an age where most of the business happens online, website security is something you cannot neglect. Google’s last year’s research had shown an increase of 180% in sites being compromised. It also showed that directly contacting the website owner regarding the issue helps preventing these attacks. This new feature will provide another method for alerting website owners of the impending attack.

As it is said that “prevention is better than cure”, this holds good here too. Prevention keeps your site as well as users safe. Google recently published some tips and practices to help protect your site. These can be found here. Google says that all the websites should follow these practices irrespective of their size. Google also recommends verifying your site on the Search Console.